On the second run over the Coolcross stage which was stage 4 Gareth MacHale was very impressive indeed almost five seconds faster than Eugene Donnelly and seven up on Eamonn Boland. Glenn Allen was unfortunate to break a drive shaft on his Corolla and he dropped over 20 seconds and two places on the leaderboard.
Group N leader Garry Jennings had new pads fitted to his Lancer at service and he felt that he might have glazed them. Seamus Leonard got over his fright on the first run through that Coolcross stage to set fastest group N time on the second run and
oust young Alastair Fisher out of the leaderboard and 11th o/a. Shaun Gallagher was now 12th o/a. Damien Tourish was 13th. Danny McBride 14th: The Doherty brothers Daniel and Michael were lying just outside the top 15 and setting very good times.
In the National rally Wesley Patterson was fastest of the Escort drivers through stage 4. Wesley’s gearbox change was completed successfully at service but there were still a few things needed wired up to make the read out on the dash function, so Wesley was being slightly careful. Daniel McKenna got his clutch changed in 20 minutes at service and he was lying 11th in the Nationals and leading class 12.
Gareth MacHale and his co driver Brian Murphy in their Focus WRC recorded fastest time through all 3 of Friday afternoon’s loop of stages to clock up a 22s lead on Eamonn Boland/MJ Morrissey in their Impreza going into the overnight halt in Letterkenny. Eugene Donnelly pulled out all the stops through stages 5 and 6 to record second fastest times but he still was third in the classification. Sean Devine in 5th place had a few anxious moments at the start of stage 6 when his Subaru gave a hint of clutch problems. Aaron MacHale in 6th had an overshoot earlier but reckoned the change in the suspension has the helped the car.
Garry Jennings in 7th leds Group N but was fairly stunned at his closest pursuer Seamus Leonard’s time through stage 6. Alastair Fisher was 3rd Group N and 10th overall and he said that he took no chances over the last few stages. Glenn Allen has dropped out of the leaderboard, his Corolla in some sort of transmission trouble. Glenn’s total was then 41.55.3 which put him in 15th overall. Just outside the top 10: Shaun Gallagher was 11th and admitted he needed inspiration to waken him up. Damien Tourish was 12th and said he Lancer was going fine but forgot to plug his intercom in at the start of 6 and then “went like a lunatic”. Daniel Doherty was 13th and still fighting to regain the time lost with the earlier puncture. Donagh Kelly, seeded at 45, was 14th and Glenn Allen 15th. Danny McBride was 16th and said the brakes on his old Evo 8 don’t seem anything like as good as the new Evo 9 brakes. Pat Kirk was 17th: Trevor Bustard 18th: Gavin Harris 19th. He said he went well on the opening stage and then went backwards. Alan Carmichael is 20th and he was slowed on the first stage when his Lancer filled with smoke which then cleared for stage 2.
